Huawei implicated in political donations in UK

Huawei's UK arm paid more than 18,000 in donations to British political parties, reported the Daily Telegraph, implicating that the Chinese leading equipment provider was involved in some kind of political games to seek business access in the country.

"New disclosures from the Electoral Commission shows political parties are increasingly reliant on selling businesses access to ministers," the report said.

Huawei's UK arm paid more than 8,600 pounds to send executives to a networking event at the Conservative Party conference, and it also paid 10,000 to the Liberal Democrats to sponsor a reception at its conference in Brighton, it said.

It noted that the events came at a time when U.S. politicians suggested companies block Huawei's technology in the country's government systems. Australia has also blocked Huawei from taking part in its multi-billion pound national broadband project.

Calling Huawei "a controversial Chinese company accused of posing a threat to U.S. national security", the report said the company confirmed that it attended all three party conferences, including the Conservative business dinner in Birmingham.

Huawei denied links in party political donations, according to the report. "Huawei is a private employee owned company and one of China's largest investors into the UK. The company now employs over 800 people in the UK," a spokesman for Huawei said, "Beyond attending the conferences and certain business events there, we do not make party political donations."

Huawei has long been embracing critics outside China especially in issues with security concerns partly because of the fact that its founder Ren Zhengfei was a former member of the Red Army and that he has kept his profile very low-key, and also the company's widespread expansion overseas.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former defence and foreign secretary, is now leading a UK parliamentary review into "the whole presence of Huawei in regard to our critical national infrastructure and whether that should give rise for concern".

In particular, it is looking at Huawei's longstanding relationship with BT, which it has supplied with telecoms equipment since 2005, the report said.